AMD dispels rumors about hidden cores in Radeon HD 7970

A leaked Sapphire document revealed a Tahiti GPU with 2304 cores, but after contacting AMD, Bright Side of News got to hear that there are no hidden cores. The chip has 2048 shaders, so the 2304 number from Sapphire is likely a mistake, or part of a test by AMD to find out which partners leak specifications to members of the press.

Late last week, we started hearing a rumor considering recently launched Radeon HD 7970. The rumor was based on leaked Sapphire documents that were mentioning insanely high clocks for their upcoming parts, but also specified parts featuring the Tahiti GPU with 2304 cores.

Given that AMD did not deliver die shots of Southern Islands GPU architecture, it wasn’t too hard to see the tech media and consumers spreading like wildfire. AMD did not help the matter by not returning the early calls but in all fairness, it was New Year weekend.

We contacted AMD's representatives such as Mr. Chris Hook and Eric Demers and received a straight answer from the company, represented by Mr. Hook, Senior PR exec: